Reminder: Florida Flounder Harvest Re-Opens December 1st
Eugene L. 11.29.22
The wait is almost over for flounder anglers in Florida. Florida’s Recreational Harvest is reopening this Thursday, December 1st. Hopefully the flounder don’t also learn the season on them is open and disappear like so many fish seem to do. Back in October, the recreational harvest of Florida flounder closed. This was due to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) trying to protect the Florida flounder during their spawning season. This applied to both state waters in Florida and Federal waters in both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The annual flounder season closure and other fisheries management measures on the Florida flounder were approved back in December 2020 but the FWC Commission. The reasoning for the closures and other measures was due to stock sampling of the flounder showing that there was a declining trend.
Starting from December 1st you can catch flounder with all legal ways of catching flounder; be it gigging, seine nets, cast nets, or hook and line. This applies to both state waters and federal waters in and around Florida.
The term Florida Flounder is a broad term that covers the three different species of flounder, the gulf flounder (Paralichthys albigutta), southern flounder (P. lethostigma), and summer flounder (P. dentatis). Even though the gulf flounder name implies that it lives in just the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf flounder can be caught in both the Atlantic and Gulf around the state of Florida. The regulations for three of the main Florida Flounder species stayed the same. The size limit for all three species also did not change and is still 14″ total length and has the same daily recreational limit of 5 fish per person per day.
Learn more about flounder regulations at MyFWC.com/Marine by clicking “Recreational Regulations” and “Flounder” or download the Fish Rules App at Instagram.com/FishRulesApp or Facebook.com/FishRulesApp.
